


Parents Without Partners

by adorkablephil (kimberly_a)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Single Parents, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-29 14:36:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16266239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimberly_a/pseuds/adorkablephil
Summary: Dan and Phil are both single dads who don’t really know how to do this whole dating thing





	1. Meet Cute

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nefertiti1052 (Succubusphan)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Succubusphan/gifts).



> Just a little bit of something that I wrote for a prompt a good friend sent me on Tumblr more than a year ago.

While a group of rowdy children of various ages engaged in a rather haphazard attempt at a game of football, a group of much less rowdy and much more uncomfortable adults of various ages stood around nearby, ostensibly watching the match but more subtly watching each other.

That was the purpose of the event, after all. They didn’t call the organization Children With One Parent, they called it Parents Without Partners … so the point was for the single parents to mingle. Some were taking the opportunity, chatting with others about the game, about their children, and about banal topics such as the weather.

A few, however, hovered awkwardly about, not talking to anyone. Two men, in particular, hadn’t spoken to a single person except their own children since arriving.

Suddenly, a row began on the football field, and one boy pushed another onto the ground. The smaller boy on the ground immediately burst into tears.

The two awkward men rushed forward, each to one of the children.

“He elbowed me on purpose,” sobbed the boy on the ground as his father helped him to his feet and gently wiped his tears away. The little boy had ginger hair and pale skin, but his father’s hair was so black that it looked straight out of a bottle.

“He said my mum didn’t want me,” grumbled the slightly larger boy with brown curly hair to his father dressed in clothes as black as the other man’s hair.

Both men comforted their children, eyeing each other with slight disapproval but a nervous awareness of the other parents watching. They pulled their children aside from the game, and the curly haired man asked his boy, “Did you elbow him on purpose?” The boy shrugged sullenly, and his father sighed.

The other man asked his boy, “Did you say that about his mum?” and his child started crying harder. He nodded and began apologizing profusely. “You know that was unkind,” the father gently chided the boy. “And I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.”

The smaller boy wiped his face and got his tears under control with a hiccup or two. He turned to the other boy and said, “I’m sorry I said that about your mum. My mum doesn’t want me, either, and so I just said the meanest thing I could think of because I was mad. But I’m really sorry.”

The larger boy kicked at the grass without looking at any of the other three people standing with him. “I didn’t mean to elbow you,” he said to the grass. Then he looked at the smaller boy and added, “I promise. It was an accident.” The two boys smiled tremulously at each other, and then the larger boy said, “My mum did want me. She did!” Tears stood out in his eyes, but he stubbornly refused to cry. “But she died.”

The smaller boy rushed forward and hugged the other tightly. The larger boy stiffened at first, but then hesitantly patted the other on the back while looking up at his father as if pleading for some rescue.

The curly-haired father said, “Georgie, he’s clearly sorry. Let him apologize.”

“I’m so so sorry!” the littler boy sobbed, dissolving in tears again. “I didn’t know that about your mum. I would never have said that if I knew!”

The curly-haired boy gave the smaller boy a quick hug in return, then admitted, “I did elbow you a bit on purpose. Just a little bit. So I’m sorry, too.”

As the boys parted, the black-haired man knelt and hugged his boy, whispering to him as the child threw his arms around his papa’s neck. The man then dried the boy’s face with the hem of his t-shirt and smiled at him. “Will you go out and play some more? It might be fun.” The little boy glanced at the other boy, a question in his eyes.

The brown-haired boy hesitated, glanced at his father, who nodded at him encouragingly, then replied, “Okay. Maybe we can be on the same team this time. I promise I won’t hurt you on purpose.” And with that, the two boys ran back out onto the pitch. The two fathers watched them, and both noticed that the larger boy seemed to be running interference for the smaller child, making sure that no one accidentally or purposely ran into him.

The black-haired man turned to the curly-haired fellow and said uncomfortably, “I think they’ll be okay now,” and the other man nodded with an apologetic smile.

“Georgie has been acting out a bit since his mum died,” he explained. “I’m sorry he hurt your boy.”

“I’m very sorry to hear about your wife,” the black-haired man rushed to say, looking horrified that his child had said something so hurtful.

The curly-haired man looked at the ground and kicked at the grass in an unconscious imitation of his son and explained uncomfortably, “She … we weren’t married. I only spent weekends with Georgie before she died, so we’re … it’s an adjustment for both of us, but harder on him, I think.”

“So you suddenly find yourself a single, full-time father, then? That must be rough.”

The other man shrugged before meeting the black-haired man’s gaze. “It was a year ago, and no harder than your situation, I’d guess. From what your boy said, I mean. I’m sorry to hear about his mum.”

The other man blushed a bright pink and cleared his throat. “She … I suppose I’m a bit … eccentric. Perhaps more of a … well, a geek … a nerd … than she realized when we married. It was a bit of a whirlwind romance and we didn’t know each other well.” He looked out at his boy on the football pitch and said, obviously embarrassed, “I guess a husband who considers games of Mario Kart a good time wasn’t quite her cup of tea.”

The curly-haired man grinned. “I love Mario Kart.” They looked at each other. “Perhaps … sometime we could … we could get our boys together and play some video games?”

The black-haired man smiled and nodded shyly. “That would be nice.” He held out his hand. “I’m Phil,” he said.

The other man reached out to shake his hand, replying, “I’m Dan.”

At the same time, talking over each other, not quite in sync, they both said, “It’s nice to meet you,” then burst into laughter.

“I guess we agree that it’s nice,” giggled Phil, and when he laughed, his tongue showed slightly at the corner of his mouth.

His wife had considered that trait childish and strange, but Dan found it cute.

They both turned back to watch the game with a new electricity humming between them. This might be the start of something good.


	2. Clarification

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Currently, this is the end of this little fic. If people want more and I get inspired, I may further explore these guys’ relationship and how it develops, but for now we’re finished.

They decided to play at Dan’s place, because he said he had a decent-sized lounge for four people, especially when two of them were small children. At five and six years old, George and Sam didn’t take up a lot of space.

Dan only had two controllers for his Wii, so they couldn’t all play at the same time. Phil said, “Next time, we can bring our controllers from home, so we can all play.” Then he blushed and looked away, stammering, “I mean, if we do this again.”

Dan reassured him. “I’m sure we’ll do this again. I think it’s going to be fun.” They smiled at each other.

Each parent played against their own kid, then the adults let the two kids play against each other. They stayed long enough to make sure that no fights seemed imminent, then Dan asked, “Who wants popcorn and hot chocolate?” The kids both yelled, “Me!” and Phil raised his hand and said, a bit less loudly, “Me!” Dan laughed.

“Want to come help me?” Dan asked Phil, and so they both went into the kitchen. Dan went directly to the cabinet with the microwave popcorn, and Phil asked him, “Where’s the cocoa?” Dan pointed, and Phil went to fetch the necessary container.

Dan put the popcorn in the microwave first, then poured milk into four mugs and scooped in the instant cocoa mix. Then the two men leaned against the counters and waited, listening to the pops of the popcorn in the microwave. The silence was a little awkward, filled only with the escalating speed of popping sounds coming from the microwave. Dan and Phil didn’t look at each other, both just staring at the kitchen tiles as if they were somehow fascinating.

When the popcorn’s frenzied popping had slowed, Dan removed the bag. The popcorn was perfectly cooked, with no burning, and Phil was impressed. He always seemed to burn it a little, trying to get those last few kernels to pop. Dan put the first mug into the microwave and poured the popcorn into a large bowl.

Then they went back to staring at the floor. Out of nowhere, Dan burst out, “I’m bisexual.” He hit himself in the forehead immediately afterward, staring more fixedly at the floor and muttering to himself.

Phil went to him and grabbed Dan’s hand to make sure he wouldn’t hit himself again. His head still down, Dan looked up at Phil through his lashes, and he looked terrified. “I mean…” he started, but Phil interrupted him.

“Me too,” Phil said. And then he giggled.

Dan’s shoulders relaxed and he raised his head. Phil let go of his hand, and Dan continued, “I just didn’t want you to think, just because I was with Karen…”

Phil interrupted him again. “I know. I was trying to figure out how to say the same thing. Just because I was married to a woman, doesn’t mean…”

Dan sighed in relief. “Yeah. Exactly.”

He and Phil looked at each other for a long minute. Eventually, Phil said, “I like you.” Then he looked at the floor again, seeming nervous.

“I like you, too,” Dan assured him, not looking away. The sounds of excitement in the lounge were building, and Dan still had mugs of hot cocoa to finish, but he couldn’t stop staring at Phil.

Eventually Phil looked back up at him and asked, “Yeah?”

Dan nodded.

Phil licked his lips, then asked, “I mean, ‘like’ as in…”

“I’m attracted to you,” Dan clarified. Then he turned away to deal with the mugs of hot chocolate, just in case that hadn’t been what Phil meant. Another mug was in the microwave, and Dan stirred the first one, gazing at it as if the task took all of his attention.

“Same here,” he heard Phil say, and looked up. A small smile graced Phil’s lips. They just looked at each other for a while, and then the microwave dinged. They both laughed, and Dan turned to deal with the second mug.

A bit of an argument seemed to have broken out in the lounge, so Dan said, “Let’s get these first two mugs out there to distract the monsters.” Phil chuckled and nodded. They each carried a mug out for their own child, and indeed, the chocolate seemed to end all dispute as the children enjoyed their treat.

“We’re going back into the kitchen to make our own hot chocolate. Can you two behave yourselves without fighting?” Phil asked, and both kids nodded, sipping happily from their steaming mugs.

So Dan and Phil went back into the kitchen, and Dan put another mug into the microwave, and they both went back to leaning against the counters, listening to the whirring sound the microwave made. “Did you know that ‘microwave’ is an onomatopoeia?”

“No it isn’t,” Phil laughed.

“Sure it is!” Dan insisted. And he demonstrated, raising his finger and turning it in a horizontal circle, saying, “Microwave,” in a sound that vaguely resembled the sound the microwave was making, but only vaguely.

“That is  _not_  an onomatopoeia!” Phil insisted, laughing harder.

And then Dan was moving across the kitchen and kissing him, catching Phil right in the middle of a laugh, so that his mouth was already partway open. Dan started to pull away after only the briefest of touches, but Phil immediately raised his hand to the back of Dan’s neck and reeled him back in to prolong the kiss into something softer, their lips lingering and moving gently against each other.

The microwave dinged again.

Dan and Phil moved apart, both chuckling a bit nervously. So. The first kiss was out of the way … and it had been pretty great. Dan turned to stir the third mug of chocolate and put the fourth into the microwave. Both men went back to leaning against the kitchen counters, but now they gazed at each other, smiling.

“Well … um…” Phil said, but then he didn’t have anything to say after that, so he just trailed off. He and Dan both started laughing. “Great story, Phil,” he teased himself, and they both laughed more.

When the fourth mug was ready, Dan stirred it, and they both carried their hot chocolate back into the lounge, where their kids had begun playing Mario Kart again and seemed to be working their way toward another argument. “Hey,” Dan said calmly. “Everybody play nice.” Both kids pretended to ignore him, still focused on the game, but they both quieted down.

“It’s our turn next,” Phil said. “Grown ups get to play, too.” Then he blushed and glanced at Dan. They both huffed out silent chuckles.

When the kids were done, Dan and Phil played against each other, but Dan kicked Phil’s butt. “I demand a rematch!” Phil cried.

Dan nodded, and said, “Definitely. But right now I have to get George to the minder so I can get some work done on a project for my job.” He gazed at Phil with promise and said, “But this is definitely to be continued later.”

Phil walked the two of them to the door, and Sam tagged along behind, still a bit shy even after hours of Mario Kart with the more confident George.

“I’ll call you?” Dan said, making it a question instead of a statement.

“Definitely,” Phil responded with a smile. “We still have that argument to finish.”

Dan frowned in confusion. “Argument?”

Phil smirked. “‘Microwave’ is definitely not an onomatopoeia!”

George and Sam both looked confused, but Dan burst out laughing. “I’ll convince you next time.”

“I look forward to it,” Phil said with a smirk.

They all said goodbye at the door, and then Dan and George left. Phil turned to Sam and asked, “Did you have fun today?”

Sam nodded, then headed off to the sofa, probably to watch some cartoons.

“Me, too,” Phil said, and touched his lips with a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not sure how long this will be—maybe just the two parts I’ve already written.


End file.
